Muslim parties express shock at Sunni Waqf Board withdrawing claim

Muslim parties in the Ayodhya land dispute case on Friday issued a statement expressing shock over reports suggesting that the Sunni Waqf Board was withdrawing from the case.  Advocate Eijaz Maqbool, who represented key Muslim litigant M Siddiq in the Ayodhya land dispute, said all Muslim parties, except the Sunni Waqf Board, have rejected settlement as the main Hindu parties to the dispute were not part of the mediation process and its purported settlement. The Muslim parties, except the Sunni Waqf Board, issued a clarificatory statement to say they don't accept the Supreme Court-appointed mediation panel's proposal on the purported settlement to amicably resolve the Ram Janmabhoomi Babri Masjid land dispute.

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Muslim parties express shock

On October 16, when a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi reserved its verdict in the case after 40-days of hearing, the mediation panel's report was also reportedly submitted to the court.  The three-member mediation panel is headed by former apex court judge Justice F M I Kalifulla. According to sources close to the mediation panel, the report filed in a sealed cover is a "sort of a settlement" between the Hindu and the Muslim parties. The sources said the Sunni Waqf Board, Nirvani Akhada, Nirmohi Akhada, Ram Janmabhoomi Punruddhar Samiti and some other Hindu parties are in favour of settling the contentious land dispute. It was also purportedly said the Sunni Waqf Board was willing to withdraw the lawsuit as part of compromise formula. 

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Mediation panel on Ayodhya case

On September 16, a fresh plea was made by a Hindu and a Muslim party seeking resumption of the mediation process for amicable settlement of the land dispute in Ayodhya by the mediation panel. The top court Wednesday reserved its verdict in the title dispute after a marathon hearing of 40 days. Fourteen appeals have been filed in the apex court against the 2010 Allahabad High Court judgment, delivered in four civil suits, that the 2.77-acre land in Ayodhya is partitioned equally among the three parties -- the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla. On December 6, 1992, the Babri Masjid, constructed at the disputed site in the 16th century by Shia Muslim Mir Baqi, was demolished.

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Judgement on November 17

The judgment in the matter is to be pronounced by November 17, the day the Chief Justice of India will demit the office. The apex court had on August 6, commenced day-to-day proceedings in the case as the mediation proceedings initiated to find the amicable resolution had failed. The Bench had taken note of the report of the three-member panel, comprising Justice FMI Kallifulla, spiritual guru and founder of the Art of Living Foundation Sri Sri Ravishankar and senior advocate and renowned mediator Sriram Panchu, that mediation proceedings, which went on for about four months, did not result in any final settlement and it had to decide the matter pending before it.

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